The Tools of Statecraft: Indoril Lexia

[neoqwerty]

Indoril Lexia is young. Old enough that her features are defined, old enough that she's aware of her fate, raised in the Mourning Hold's Nord-run Orphanage (what a pretty, charitable word the Nords drape over their propaganda machine!), old enough that she knows the political maneuvering of naming her Queen of the Mourning Hold is an attempt by the Nords to destabilize the old royal family of the Ebonheart Hold.

But young enough that she will believe him in earnest, when he paints a pretty lie for her, when he promises her the power the Nords took from her along with her close family.

Nerevar feels the weak tug of conscience as he prepares this attempt in his path to ascension; he will use her as a rung in his ladder up the ranks of House society, but he will present himself as a sympathizer to her plight in particular, as an ally to a would-be puppet-queen of Mereth, who wants to help her outplay the Nords at their own game and make her Queen of Veloth, beloved of the Chimer people and legitimate ruler of their nation.

If she says yes, he will use her to legitimize himself, to make himself King, to ally with whoever will support him in breaking the invaders and restoring Veloth's land. If she says no, he will use her as a pawn of the Nords, build an alliance with the Ra'athim and maneuver House Mora to greater status by foiling the usurpation of the royal line, ingratiate himself as their military advisor.

Indoril Lexia is not the first mer he will use as a tool (and here, he thinks of a young seer-whore he turned into a warrior, into his second in all but writ, keeps close so that his visions are never used against Nerevar), and she is not the last mer who will become part of his dream, of a land named Resdayn (the strange, dour mages of House Dagoth, who follow the Old Ways of Veloth, are drawing into Nerevar's cutting range).

Sequel: Of Changing Views And Love
In this series: Sotha Sil